Looking beyond the Royal Rumble for a moment, it might be time to give Seth Rollins serious consideration as a potential Universal Title challenger. True, he’s in the mix with Superstars a lot bigger and stronger than he is, but as The Kingslayer explained in an address that evoked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he has one ace in the hole: Bone-deep passion and a burning desire to win the day. And lest you think that’s just a downtrodden former champion trying to talk himself up, Rollins put his money where his mouth was by defeating Drew McIntyre — as dangerous a competitor as there is and a champion-in-waiting by all accounts — on the strength of those very intangibles.
It would take nothing less to topple The Scottish Psychopath, who had Rollins completely and utterly outgunned in the power department. McIntyre made a show of rag-dolling The Kingslayer across and outside the ring in the first half of the match and later again down the stretch after the former WWE Champion fought his way back into the match. Yet Rollins notched kickout after kickout and finally caught McIntyre by rolling him up and stacking himself completely on top of the Scot to make his size count for nothing, and give Rollins' heart the last word.